BEST PRACTICE GUIDE- CELJE

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE- CELJE

Region of Celje:

-23 municipalities

-4.144 companies

-45.780 employees

-12.988 registred unemployed (2008)

-15, 08 rate of registred uneployed (december 2008)

-6.193.316.000 € income

With 50.000 inhabitants Celje is the third largest town in Slovenia. It is the development, business, economic, trade, cultural, educational, administrative, health care, sport facility and fair centre of the Savinjska region.

After Slovenia gained independence, Celje primarily developed as a city of trade, fairs, and sports. Achievements in these fields, particularly the investments into the infrastructure, gave Celje the informal title of the fastest developing Slovenian city. Thus, one of the objectives of Celje’s application for the 2012 European Capital of Culture was to become the leading Slovenian city in the field of culture.

In a globalized world, the local and regional environments that are capable of adapting to the rapid changes, primarily brought on by the extremely fast development of information-communication technology, have the best chances for progress. Due to the restrictions brought forth by the material and financial resources, European cities with about 50,000 inhabitants can hardly compete with their major counterparts. In order for them to be competitive in the increasingly competitive environment, smaller and mid-sized cities must, most of all, invest into human capital. In this sense, culture offers much greater potential over the understanding of the new role of cultural policy that takes on tasks much broader and more complex than simply providing a certain extent of public cultural goods and services, to the designing of a new model of urban development that draws on the cultural and creative potential of the city's inhabitants.

The priority project of Celje and the Savinjska region is creating a technological city which will establish the technological development structure and the structure enhancing the human capital of the region.

1. CELJE / CELJE CREATIVE OFFICE AS INTERDISCIPLINARY LAB/ Best practice example

A.  What is the nature of the intervention?

Dissemination of the digital information and communication technologies, rapid development and globalization are the main factors affecting all sectors of the creative industries. This factors are causing a fundamental change of the traditional production processes and they also create new kind of audience.

Art in contemporary society is becoming more accessible, open, interdisciplinary oriented and with the increasing digitalization it allows  consumers a chance of an active participation in the art process.

Therefore a proper space of interaction has to be developed, a space that stimulates development, innovations and growth of individual sectors of the creative industries. The most important factor is the development of the interdisciplinary laboratory with the main focus on networking and integration of different sectors.

That was the main purpose that Institution for Cultural events and Tourism CELEIA (within the CITIES project) started to organize interdisciplinary seminars which are oriented towards research and are focused on meetings  between various sectors working inside the creative industries as well as general public.

In the nearest future Institution CELEIA could be the mediator between different disciplines and sectors. That sort of communication stimulates cooperation between individual sectors (arts, academic, scientific, economic, etc.). On a national level that kind of open form of communication is still not yet fully established because individual sectors are working homogeneous and self- enclosed which causes a lack of innovations  and enables a progressive development.

The first interdisciplinary seminar was organized on the theme ˝Art in the public space˝ ( 4.2.2010). Art in the public space is not just a fountain or a sculpture in permanent material. Art in the public space could be an idea, performance, legal or illegal intervention, street art, art as an active care for the city…it could be permanent or mobile, representational or temporary.

All that and more could be art in the public space and yet the calls for public art project are rather exceptional. And even in this cases they are limited on monuments or ˝applied forms˝ with utilitarian or didactic value.

Could art in the public space be autonomous or does it always have to account the context and the client? Is art in the public space becoming increasingly instrumentalised ? What is the role of the artist in urban planning?

Why aren´t artist, who are creative and innovative thoughtful individuals, included in the conceptual planning of the city urban projects ?

It is obvious that city development planners, urban designers and artist rarely sit together behind the same table, that is way we invited architects and urban planners as well as artist who have experience in the field of public art on the seminar.

With the organization of the second interdisciplinary seminar, under the title ˝ Visual Art in the age of Creative Industries˝ ( 19.5.- 20.5.2010) we wanted to open the discussion as regards the relations between visual art and the creative industries, for it appears that it is in this field that the greatest misunderstandings and wrongful interpretations appear. According to the definition in the Green Paper the field is divided into creative and cultural industries. Visual arts belong amongst cultural industries, while architecture and design are placed amongst creative industries. The Green Paper explicitly emphasises the essential role of artists and cultural workers in the development of cultural industries.

The seminar attempt was to answer a series of questions that deal with the position of cultural industries in Slovenia:

What do cultural industries represent to an individual creator, art institutions, private associations and galleries? How will the national cultural policy include them into its development plan? How does the national strategy foresee the development of creative and cultural industries? What can we learn from the examples of good practice in countries that systematically develop creative and cultural industries?

The seminar joined experts from creative industries, artists and experts in the art market and cultural economy.

B.  '''What is the effect of the intervention? '''

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It appears through seminars that a general misunderstanding among artist, creative individuals, public authority representatives or /and entrepreneurs enables the communication.

It turns out that because of the lack of information on the ˝creative industries concept ˝, the creative industries are being misinterpreted. Artist are being sceptical, because they equate the term ˝Creative industries˝ with the commercial sphere and the lost of autonomy and instrumentalisation. They neglect the fact that their artistic practice could become a subject of economic exploitation. Artist define culture as an important educational activity with the emphasis on social ethics, an activity that doesn’t belong in the economic sector. Because of the lack of information, examples of good practices and shortage of communication. Partnership between art and economy in Slovenia is still at the very beginning.

The experiences of “western good practices” on the other hand, often prove, that art is in danger to be discursively commodified, as productive assets and positive externalities.

Artists find funding by assuming the role of surrogate and simulacral service providers delivering cheap but cosmetic substitutes for welfare provision. While cultural agencies pour millions into flagship projects that almost immediately sink, artists are a low risk investment.

Networking and the exchange of experiences are obviously the key for a wider understanding of the term ˝Creative industries˝. The most important is that artists are aware of their environment and that they use its specifics for a progressive development of innovative products and services.

<p style="text-align:justify">We believe that interdisciplinary could be the key to connect the sectors in a new, unexpected way and provide a situation in which professionals from different fields of economy and creative industries who do usually not work with artists (and vice versa) - experience a change in their mindset and working practice. Celje Creative Office – foreseen as the Cities project pilot activity – is going to be a service to provide necessary information, networking, external expertise and practical help.

<p style="text-align:justify">2.CELJE / Best practice example / LILA PRAP

<p style="text-align:justify">A.What is the nature of the intervention?

<p style="text-align:justify">A good example of best practice, where art and economic success go hand in hand, is Slovenian author of children books Lilijana Praprotnik Zupančič.

<p style="text-align:justify">Lilijana Praprotnik Zupančič with artistic name Lila Prap was born 1955 in Celje. She studied architecture in Ljubljana. She is a freelance artist, making her living in graphic  design, interior decorating and writing, as well as illustrating for children. She is the only Slovenian artist, who was able to achieve that her name became an international recognized brand.

Her picture books (featuring her signature pastel-on-paper drawings ) have been published in Croatia, Indonesia, Thailand, Macedonia, UK, Argentina, Spain, Romania, New Zeland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Poland, Danish, Greece, Hungary,  Korea, France, the Chech Republic, Switzerland, Norway, India, Greece, the USA, Canada and Japan. In 2006 she has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children literature. Some of her work was included in the 1998 Illustrators Exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, and she was a guest author at the 2004 Frankfurt Book Fair.

After graduation she started working in a  architecture studio in Germany,  but she returned to Celje and got a job as professor in high school. In that period she started drawing funny sketches for a local newspaper, shortly after she began illustrating for a children newspaper CICIBAN.

<p style="text-align:justify">At the beginning she used watercolor technique, later on she began to draw with her left hand and pastel which soon became her recognized trade mark. The drawings of Lila Prap are simple, clear and extremely precise. She draws with pastel on black surface so the colors are more intense and strong.

<p style="text-align:justify">She combines the drawings with innovative, funny, simple text that is appropriate for children and is not oriented towards teaching but is open for various interpretations. The first book Little Creatures from Lila Prap was published at Mladinska knjiga, the following were: Animal lullabies and picture book WHY?.

<p style="text-align:justify">The story of success started when she participated on Bologna Children Book Fair. The Bologna Children Books Fair is the most important event focused on presentation of children and youth literature. It is a place where various illustrators, writers, agents, editors, etc. meet.

<p style="text-align:justify">Lila Prap applied with her series of illustrations for children book Why? and was chosen between thousand of artists to participate on the fair with her illustration in a form of an exhibition. On the fair the Japanese company NHK Enterprise noticed illustrations from Lila Prap. NHK Enterprises, Inc. (NEP) produces a wide range of programs for TV and radio and also meets image and content needs in such diverse fields as Hagetaka: The Movie, events like Tokyo Jazz, and DVD and character goods sales. NHK Enterprise Company was merged with International Media Corporation (MICO) in April, 2010 with the goal of reinforcing their international reach in diverse operations from the overseas sales of programs and goods to joint international program productions. They are also the main agents for Hello Kitty trade mark.

<p style="text-align:justify">They saw potential in the visual aesthetics of Lila Prap illustrations and decided that they will make a project with the main goal to establish a trade mark Lila Prap. After they reviewed her opus they decided that they will make various products for sale from the picture book WHY?

<p style="text-align:justify">They had chosen WHY? Because it consists of various animal figures and it is appropriate for girls and boys- which presents a larger market.

First they translated WHY? in Japanese language and published it in 12.000 copies. Then they started with a progressive construction of the LILA PRAP figure, making her figure a recognizable product. They made an animated figure that resembles the typical image of Lila Prap. For promotion they started to include the Lila Prap animated figure as well as the real Lila Prap in various TV shows, advertisements, etc. They wanted to infiltrate the simple, natural figure of Lila Prap into everyday life.

<p style="text-align:justify">The strategy of NHK Enterprise company is that they first try to penetrate on the American market and then in Japan.

<p style="text-align:justify">They presented the Lila Prap project to one of  American commercial  corporation and they were willing to participate in the project. They developed more than 300 Lila Prap products taken from the  picture book WHY?,  for instance: toys, t-shirts, hats, underwear, cutlery, towels, etc.

<p style="text-align:justify">When they penetrated on the American market they continued with the promotion of Lila Prap in Japan. They also developed a Lila Prap web page – online shop on which we can find out more about Lila Prap, her work, cartoons, etc. as well as order various products. In the webpage they also included a short video presentation of Slovenia, in which Lila Prap presents Slovenian most known tourist attractions.

<p style="text-align:justify">NHK Enterprise made cartoon series GAO GAO BUUUUUU that were created using classical drawings, not computer animation, and were drawn by a Japanese artist, of course designed from Lila’s original art. They used classical drawings because they wanted to preserve the originality of the basic material. Cartoons are consisted of a question about a certain animal characteristic and of funny answers. At the end of each cartoon we find out a scientific answer of the original question. Between each individual cartoon they included a sequence of Lila Prap working on a drawing at her home.

<p style="text-align:justify">Recently they opened a chain of Lila Prap houses a kind of hotels near children hospitals where sick children meet their parents. The houses are covered with Lila Prap´s illustrations.

<p style="text-align:justify">'''B. What is the effect of the intervention? '''

<p style="text-align:justify">Lila Prap became a real phenomenon in Japan. And that is a big success in a country full of similar animated figures.

<p style="text-align:justify">The picture book WHY? is extremely successful and was reprinted five times, which made Lila Prap one of the most selling new author in Japan. Recently they published a second picture book from Lila Prap called Dinosaurs.

<p style="text-align:justify">Her products are selling in various shopping centers in America and Japan. In Japan Lila Prap even has her own store.

Cartoons series GAO GAO BUUUU are playing twice a day on Japan national TV and are extremely popular. Till now they already made 52 cartoon series GAO GAO BUUUU. Now even Slovenian national TV has bought the cartoons, and we will be able to see how Japanese cartoons based on Slovenian books will feel on their ‘home’ territory. Cartoons are also playing in America.

'''C. What advice would you give others? '''

Lila Prap example clearly shows us that for an artist working in Slovenia the crucial point to achieve success is the transition on the global market.

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